National Concert Hall choirs Cór Linn and Cór na nÓg make a welcome return to this year's New Music Dublin festival, for a performance showcasing the very best of Ireland's young vocal talent.
Amongst the world premieres being performed is A Lullaby, written by Cór Linn member Gracie Gilmartin.
We asked this remarkable young composer a few questions about her experience creating A Lullaby.
How did you first become interested in music and singing?
My love of music began as a small child and has grown alongside me my whole life. I started to play piano when I was 3 and taught myself guitar when I was 10. My parents always encouraged me and my siblings to play piano and we all took lessons as children in the local music school in Lucan, where I'm from. I was very reluctant to sing and shied away from it for years, but I couldn’t help but get sucked into choirs and singing in secondary school when I joined my school’s chapel choir in first year. Choirs were where my passion for music really took off, and have definitely been the source of some of the fondest memories of my teenage years so far.
What drew you to join the choir, and what has your experience been like in the choir?
Well, I joined the Irish Youth Training Choir in July 2022 and to tell the truth, it changed my life. The standard of music there was just fabulous and it completely opened my eyes to a world of community and joyfulness I never knew existed. Instead of regular practice sessions, the IYTC meets once a year for a week-long summer course in the University of Limerick, so once I got home I was desperate to join another choir of similar standard who would meet regularly. My former singing teacher and new conductor of Cór Linn Ciarán Kelly recommended that I join Cór Linn as the two choirs are both up there with the strongest youth choirs Ireland has to offer, so I auditioned and come October 2023, I was in!
My experience of the choir so far has been amazing. One of the things that struck me most when I first started singing in choirs was the kindness, positivity and inclusivity of everybody in the Irish choral community. Cór Linn has been no different. The other singers are incredibly welcoming and friendly, and as for the members of staff working with the choir, they simply couldn’t bend over backwards for us any further. We cover a wide variety of challenging and exciting repertoire, learning the pieces at a fast pace and preparing them for concerts in Dublin’s very own National Concert Hall. The feeling of stepping onto that national stage for the first time was exhilarating - it really is a privilege to be part of something like that and to perform alongside such talented musicians.
Recital room in the National Concert Hall (Pic: Damien Eagers)
Can you tell us about A Lullaby and what inspired you to create it?
A Lullaby is a poem by American poet James Agee. I became a fan of his work through a famous choral piece by Morten Lauridsen entitled Sure On This Shining Night, which takes its text from Agee’s poem of the same name. I adored his command of language and the pictures he so tenderly paints with his words in that particular work, so I decided to scan through a collection of some of his other poetry until one night, I stumbled across A Lullaby.
I was touched by its simplicity and the way its tone comes across as almost whispered, even when reading it in your head. To me, it portrays a father gently warning a sleeping baby of all the trials it will face in times to come, but in this moment the child drifts away into dreams, innocent and unaware, at peace. This story was pouring with so much hope, sadness, fear, love - from the moment I read it, I could almost hear the music in my head. I knew I had to use it for one of my compositions.
The biggest piece of advice I would give to other aspiring composers would be to just give it a go!
What is your process like when composing music? Do you have any rituals or routines you follow?
In any music I compose, the most important thing for me to communicate is the emotion and to let the ideas flow from inside without trying to make sense of what they are or where they are coming from. When struggling with writer’s block or feeling dissatisfied with the beginnings of original material, I try to remind myself of a quote that says "you cannot create and criticise at the same time - they have to be separate processes." For that reason, I allow every piece I write to unfold differently and to follow a different process if that’s what feels right - I don’t have any particular rituals or routines, per se.
However, being a pianist before anything else, my compositions usually begin on the piano and slowly make their way onto music manuscripts before long. Because of the way I play these ideas on the piano, I often write all three or four vocal lines at the same time and develop them as smaller fragments as I go along. Like anything in music, I don’t believe there’s any particular right or wrong way to go about it - only what works for you in that moment. For me, every compositional project is unique and interesting, as if I’m meeting different parts of myself as a composer each time. That’s what I love about it.
Watch: Gracie Gilmartin introduces her composition The Love Will Always Be There
How do you feel about having your composition performed as a world premiere at New Music Dublin?
It’s unreal, really. I am being cliché but completely honest when I say if you had told me a year ago that this would be happening I truly wouldn’t know what to think. It is such a special opportunity to share what I love with a wider audience of like-minded people and to experiment with my own music alongside my peers. Even the affirmation alone of others believing that I could deliver a commission for a festival as prestigious and forthcoming as New Music Dublin means the world to me, especially as a young female composer who is very much at the emergence of my artistic journey. Encouragement is such a vital ingredient in confidence and learning to believe in yourself, and I am lucky to have so many wonderfully supportive people to thank for inspiring me and helping me to reach for every opportunity I am offered.
Above all, what you write is your own - it can be anything, and it can be exactly what you want it to be.
Are there any particular themes or emotions you aimed to convey through your composition?
Well, the piece begins with a sweet melody sung very softly, which is supposed to represent the gentleness of a father addressing his sleeping child in the night. As the text moves along, it takes a slightly sadder turn as the man talks of heartbreak which happens no matter if one tries to avoid it or not. The dynamics lift at this point to reflect this build-up of emotion, with the melancholic sentiment primarily painted by the underlying chord progression. The piece reaches its climax in the fourth stanza of the poem, where the speaker tells the child that it will soon become a man, which is followed by a wordless section sung on an ‘ah’ with a whirlwind variation of the main melody. The final minute of the song consists of a significant withdrawal of texture, but no less of intensity and passion. It closes with the return of its gentle beginning and an even softer finish as the father tells his child to sleep "for his parents’ sake.
What challenges did you face while composing this piece, and how did you overcome them?
A Lullaby was the first choral piece I have written without the help of any mentor or teacher, so it definitely proved itself to be a difficult (albeit rewarding) task. In the past I participated in choral composition programmes with Chamber Choir Ireland, which was how I first got into composing. In these programmes there are composer mentors who help the students to develop smaller melodic ideas into longer phrases, to outline the essentials of composition and to aid us in ultimately dotting our ‘i’s and crossing our ‘t’s when the score is finished.
Although the idea of writing a piece on my own was slightly daunting at first, my confidence grew the further I got into the project. Those composition programmes have given me a great foundation and because I already had that, I was able to spend more time refining the details and experimenting with my ideas. Overall I wouldn’t say there were many overwhelming challenges I faced, but maybe my enjoyment of the process has allowed my rose-tinted glasses to convince me that it was a smooth journey! The most difficult part was probably getting the score in on time. It’s hard to rush creativity.
What advice would you give to other young musicians who are interested in composing their own music?
To anyone who is interested in composing, I would highly recommend looking into the Chamber Choir Ireland composition programmes I mentioned earlier - they are completely free as they are funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, and you are working with professional singers and distinguished Irish composers who are also, coincidentally, incredibly lovely people. If that doesn’t already sound enticing enough, your finished piece gets performed by Chamber Choir Ireland in the National Concert Hall at the end of the programme. If anyone is interested, they are called ‘Composers in the Classroom’ (which is a school-based project during the academic year) and ‘Choral Postcards’, which is a summer programme.
That being said, the biggest piece of advice I would give to other aspiring composers would be to just give it a go! No matter what level of musical experience you have or if you even play any instruments, you would be shocked by what you’re capable of achieving. All you need are ideas and the desire to experiment, and the possibilities in choral music are boundless. Some of the other students I worked alongside on those programmes didn’t even know how to read music, but they made some incredible art nonetheless and surprised themselves with talent they had no idea they possessed.
Above all, what you write is your own - it can be anything, and it can be exactly what you want it to be. Just have fun with it and don’t ever be embarrassed to show people what you’ve made - there is so much joy in gifting to others what you see inside your head.
Lullaby will be performed as part of the programme for Everyday Wonders by Cór Linn and Cór na nÓg at the National Concert Hall on Sunday 28th April at 1.00pm, as part of this year's New Music Dublin programme - find out more here.
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